In Metro Manila, the best time to buy seafood is early in the morning, at the crack of dawn as much as possible just after the seafood are delivered. In the afternoon, seafood prices drop because the fish mongers are merely trying to get rid of what they weren’t able to sell in the morning. There are markets where seafood are delivered twice a day — once in the morning and once in the early afternoon — but those are exceptional cases.

In Roxas City, fish that big are still fresh at 6.00 o’clock in the evening. Shouldn’t be surprising, really, considering that the sea and the fish ponds are only minutes away from the public markets. And Roxas City is, after all, the seafood capital of the Philippines.